Susan Hubbard

Susan Hubbard

As the Associate Lab Director for Earth & Environmental Sciences Area at Berkeley Laboratory Dr. Susan Hubbard leads a premier organization of ~500 staff and affiliates with expertise in climate and ecosystem sciences and energy geosciences. This organization is focused on tackling some of the most pressing environmental and energy challenges of the 21st Century. Dr. Hubbard is also a Senior Scientist at Berkeley Lab and an Adjunct Professor at UC Berkeley.

Hubbard’s research focuses on quantifying how complex environmental systems function,  Her particular emphasis is on the development of geophysical approaches to remotely sense hydrological, geochemical, biological and geomechanical processes; how these processes couple over scales; and how the integrated processes govern water availability, water quality, carbon cycling, agriculture and subsurface geological system behaviors. She is recognized for her contributions to the development of the field of hydrogeophysics.

Susan Hubbard is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Geophysical Union, and the Geological Society of America. Dr. Hubbard’s awards include the Society of Exploration Geophysicists Frank Frischknecht Award; the Society of Exploration Geophysicists Harold Mooney Award; the American Institute of Hydrology Robert G. Wetzel Award; and the Geological Society of America Birdsall Dreiss Distinguished Lecturer Award.

Dr. Hubbard earned her Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering at UC Berkeley, an MS in geophysics from Virginia Tech and a BS in geology from UC Santa Barbara. She has been recognized as a Distinguished Alumna of her graduating departments at UC Berkeley and UC Santa Barbara. Prior to joining Berkeley Lab, she was a geologist at the US Geological Survey and a geophysicist in industry.

Hubbard is committed to efforts to increase diversity and foster equity and inclusion for women and underrepresented groups in STEM, and to the development of early-career scientists. She has served widely on advisory and editorial boards and serves as a leader or advisor on many initiatives and large team projects.